The Publican launches campaign against supermarket alcohol prices

The Publican is taking on the off-trade over its irresponsible promotion of alcohol.

We are writing to all major supermarket chains (see letter below) as well as urging licensees to get behind the new Parliamentary motion on this issue.

Supermarket giants such as Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Waitrose are guilty of slashing the price of alcohol as a means to drive more customers into their stores.

And publicans are fed up:

• They are fed up with selling beer at more than six times the price you would find it in a supermarket
• Fed up with taking the blame for drunk and disorderly behaviour caused by the consumption of cheap off-trade booze
• Fed up with seeing pubs being held to account for irresponsible promotions when the off-trade is not.

David Stoken, licensee of the Dolphin in Worthing, East Sussex, said: "At times we lose 60 per cent of our trade to cheap supermarket prices. If we priced alcohol like that we would get all kinds of grief from the licensing authorities.

"The culture is an at-home drinking culture. We've got houses all around here full of people just getting drunk. It's the cheap way to get blotto and it really grates on us."

Mark Hastings, communications director for the British Beer & Pub Association, said it was time the off-trade fell into line.

"Excessively deep discounting by supermarkets clearly has a role to play in the drinking habits of the British population," he said.

"Pubs have stepped up to the mark in stamping out irresponsible promotions and it's high time the supermarkets followed suit."

Even consumer organisation the Campaign for Real Ale has joined the call to stop supermarkets selling cheap alcohol, claiming irresponsible drinks promotions in the off-trade are a major cause of binge-drinking incidents which are blamed on licensed premises.

The Publican will spend the coming months lobbying government and the supermarkets themselves over this issue.

How to support the campaign

The Publican is calling on licensees to write to their local MP on this issue and encourage them to sign John Grogan MP's Early Day Motion (EDM no. 495), which supports this campaign. Next week we'll show you more ways you can get involved.

Open letter to supermarket chief executives

Dear Sir,

I am writing on behalf of the pub trade to urge you to end the irresponsible promotion of alcohol in your stores.

There is increasing concern at the way operators such as yourselves have been using cut-price alcohol as a means of attracting more customers.

Using turkeys as a loss leader at Christmas is one thing, but to sell cases of 24 cans of lager for under £10 is little short of unethical.

The on-trade has faced huge criticism and pressure from government and media in recent years as a result of the controversy surrounding binge-drinking. Some of the criticism was fair and the pub trade has done a lot to get its house in order with, for example, all members of the British Beer & Pub Association, which accounts for two-thirds of Britain's pubs, signing up to the organisation's voluntary code on promotions in 2005.

But there is growing concern that the pub sector's efforts are being undermined by off-trade pricing and promotions.

And worst of all, there is increasing evidence that young drinkers are taking advantage of your cheap prices and drinking excessively at home or on the streets before they go to the pub, where the publican must deal with their subsequent drunkenness and often take the blame for it from the authorities.

I am asking you, therefore, to stop using alcohol as a loss leader and halt the irresponsible promotion of low-priced alcohol in your stores and would welcome your comments on this issue.

Yours faithfully,

Caroline Nodder, Editor, The Publican